Imaginary History as Secondary Reality

In his letter to W. H. Auden, Tolkien states that “Middle-earth is not an imaginary world” but rather “the one in which we now live” (Letters 183). Instead, he proclaims that the story indeed happens in an imaginary historical period of the world that we inhabit (Letters 183). By admitting the imaginary nature of the history of Middle-earth, Tolkien potentially made it easier for some skeptical readers to appreciate his story as a fictional work. However, by describing his legendarium as combination of true geography and imaginary history, Tolkien seems to contradict his efforts to create the illusion that the story of the LOTR truly has connection to our real history. If the story is purely imaginary and fictional, why was Tolkien so obsessed with connecting the imaginary history with the real history by writing the time travel stories and even inventing the languages to create the sense of reality? Indeed, is that even possible to build connection between real history and an imaginary historical period?

To reconcile this seeming contradiction in Tolkien’s attitude towards mythology, it is critical to first understand the relationship between his notions of “imagination” and “reality.” In The Notion Club Papers, Tolkien uses the voice of the fictional character Jeremy to convey that the mythical and imaginary world is in fact “real” (The Notion Club Papers 228). According to him, this is because that there exist two degrees of reality (The Notion Club Papers 228). The primary level of reality is the one that is currently experienced and seen by people, and the other one exists in the past and only become accessible with the aid of our imagination (The Notion Club Papers 228). According to Ramer, by applying imagination, a future reader can use the documented conversations of the Notion Club to construct a secondary world that is not only real but also has the power to “produce a disturbance in the real primary world” (The Notion Club Papers 228).

In this section, Tolkien essentially suggests that the reality is organized into a two-order structure. While we all live in the primary reality, imagination allows us to mentally simulate a secondary reality. In fact, Tolkien also implies that the true history and the imaginary history in the form of legend and mythology are equally real, because both require us to use imagination as the driving power. Because it is metaphysically impossible for a person to experience either the real history that happened in the distant past or the imaginary history that is purely fiction, he or she must rely on imagination to visualize the secondary reality of real and imaginary history. In this sense, the history that actually happened in the past is not necessarily more real than the imaginary history in mythological world. In today’s class, JSLB proposed a very interesting theory that perhaps Tolkien does not believe in the objectivity of history. While I do not think that Tolkien necessarily rejects the objectivity of history, he certainly uses The Notion Club Papers to argue that the true history and the imaginary history are equally real on the experiential level. Because the two types of history both rely on our imagination to be accessible, I believe that Tolkien also implies the possibility that the two types of history can even merge with each other. For Tolkien’s Legendarium, this merging of the imaginary history and the true history is indeed made possible by the fact that both historical periods happened or is still happening on this same Earth. Knowing that our world was same world that was inhabited by the Elves and Numenoreans, we can more easily accept the possibility that the present history is connected to the history in the LOTR. By connecting the imaginary history of Middle-earth to the present history, Tolkien aims to construct a coherent and grander past that can be experienced by readers through their imagination.

However, what is the point of constructing this greater history that is made of both imaginary and true components? In fact, although Tolkien has his point in arguing that the imaginary and the true history are equally real on the experiential level, why should a reader even care about this imaginary period of the history? Personally, I believe this question can be answered by Tolkien’s conviction that both true history and imaginary history can reflect objective and universal Truth. As we learned from the readings of the past two weeks, Tolkien is deeply convinced that all stories that can make any sense can serve as manifestations of the universal religious and moral Truth. By composing a story that happened in the true world but during an imaginary time that can be potentially connected to present history, Tolkien intends to contend that the Truth reflected by the LOTR has direct implications to our present world and should function as governing principles of our lives. Indeed, as he mentions in his letter to Auden, this universal Truth reflected by the LOTR is God’s “sole right to divine honour” (Letters 183). At this moment, we can see the parallel between the LOTR and the Bible, since the two stories not only communicate the same Truth but also happen in the true world. Although the history of the former is purely imaginary and the history of the latter is true, both histories can be connected to the present history with the support of imagination, thereby instructing our lives. Thus, despite the imaginary nature of the history in the LOTR, Tolkien reproduced this mythological version of the Scripture to reveal the same Truth and to be connected with the present history.

In conclusion, while Tolkien admits that the history of the Middle-earth is imaginary, such history is as real as the actual history that happened in the past, since both types of history must be experienced through human imagination. By situating this imaginary history in the true world, Tolkien creates the possibility for readers to merge the imaginary history with the true of history. Ultimately, this grand history was constructed by Tolkien to illustrate the universal Truth that human should not challenge the authority of God. Besides manifesting the same Truth as the Bible, Tolkien’s Legendarium also narrates a period of history that can be connected to the true history of humankind with the assistance of imagination. Therefore, his Legendarium provides moral and religious guidelines that must be taken seriously by his contemporaries.

-R C

Sources:

The Letters of J.J.R. Tolkien

Sauron Defeated, J.J.R. Tolkien